This year, Sándor Sebők, parish priest from Fót, was considered worthy of the Shield of Faith award on Memorial Day for the Victims of Communism.
The special event took place in the Church of Our Lady of the University on February 25. The Hit Pajzsa award was founded in 2002 by the former smallholder politician Béla Horváth and the writer Tibor Gyurkovics, who passed away in the meantime. They wanted to commemorate those priests and monks who remained faithful to their faith even during the period under the communist dictatorship. The prize can be awarded to one person per year.
Father Sándor Sebők’s long life was very turbulent until the regime change. However, he did his job with unbroken faith despite all the harassment, controls, and threats. From the 1970s, he organized activities, religious classes, excursions, and guitar masses especially for the young age group. Of course, these were noticed by the prevention. Father not only preserved the faith, he was able to keep and convert a large number of adolescents to the faith, who years later continue to follow his teachings as adults and family members in church communities and in secular life.
He was not the only one who suffered the harassment of the ÁVH, he feared his students much more than himself, who were also observed, followed, escorted to guard rooms, and had to endure a series of interrogations, confirmations, and threats. Harassment by superiors they tried to avoid the fact that they were always transferred to another settlement after a short period of service. Thus, he returned to many places and began again and again to involve young people and form religious study groups.
He began his service as a novice chaplain in Verőcé, where he met his fellow believers belonging to the Salesian order in the parishes of the Danube bend, from whom he learned a lot. It was then that he came into contact with Jeno Sillye, who acquired religious songs accompanied by guitar, and with her help, guitar masses became famous in the 1970s. The young people came from faraway regions to the guitar masses, to Kismaros and then to Nagymaros. More than 40 people attended his youth theology group in Verőce. He continued the spiritual care of young people despite the obstacles of the system. It often happened that police officers with dogs made identification of children coming out of the church.
When the noose became very tight, it was transferred to Abony, then to Csongrád, later to Lajosmizsé, Zagyvarékas, so that the relationship between the spiritual leaders and the locals would not deepen. His religious classes and musical theological events were very popular among young people, but also among adults. In Lajosmizsé there was a “spiritual factory” with a total of 470 religious students from five farm and four village schools. The State Church Office (ÁEH) transferred Father Sándor again. He later moved to Újpest, where he managed to spend 9 years in a row.
He finally ended up in Fót in 1986. This was the end of his itinerant ministry, where he has been a parish priest for 38 years. Here he became the parish priest of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, designed by Miklós Ybl and consecrated in 1855. The world-famous, listed church, in which Ferenc Liszt played the organ several times, is not only worth showing off. Thanks to Father Sándor, there is a lively religious life here. The Regnum group is active, there is a reputable Catholic kindergarten, a formerly ecumenical, now Catholic 12-grade school, our own church choir, a guitar band with a choir, religious education groups according to age groups, Baby-Mama Club (this was the first in the country), cursillo groups, summer camps, joint pig slaughter, men’s tent, private education, retreats for small groups of university students. Marriage and family are the focus of these activities, so the Parish is also alive!
Looking back, he explained that “thanks to” the ÁVH, they managed to “infect” almost the entire country with the many transfers – in which several of his comrades also shared!
He described himself as: “I was not a hero, I was not a coward.” Father Sándor Sebők summarized his life journey with the following thanks: “Thank you, Lord, for using me!”
The Don Bosco Choir and Orchestra served at the award ceremony, among others, Zoltán Kodály’s Hungarian Mass was performed!
The festive speech was delivered by dr. Csaba Latorcai, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Public Administration and Territorial Development said. The award was given by dr. We heard from Balázs Bábel, Archbishop of Kalocsa-Kecskemét, who also presented the mass before the award ceremony in the church that was filled to the brim. Dr. Zsolt Marton, county bishop of Vác, was unable to be present in person due to an unfortunate accident, but he wrote down his thoughts on the occasion, which Dr. Auxiliary bishop Lajos Varga read.
Károly Windhager
Photo: Tamás Thaler/Hungarian Kurir
